The present invention pertains generally to golf bags and particularly to a bag with a stand having automatically deployed and retracted legs.
In the prior art are several stand assemblies for golf bags with the stands including a pair of legs swingable about pivot means. Further, the prior stands utilize ground contacting actuators which serve to deploy the legs outwardly away from an upright bag to a bag supporting position. Examples of such bag and stand construction are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,506,854 and 4,620,682. Both of the stands disclosed utilize a tubular support member extending the length of the golf bag. The actuator components are U-shaped and pivotally secured at points along the legs of the stand. The prior art stands encounter a drawback from a stability standpoint in that the leg members are of a length approximating one-half of the bag height. A further drawback is the weight contributed by the stand to the overall golf bag weight. A still further drawback to the prior art stands is the use of relatively short supporting legs that renders the golf bag unstable when placed on uneven ground surfaces. U.S. Pat. No. 4,620,682 requires that the stand be repositioned along a tubular support to deactivate the stand actuator.
Other prior art golf bag stands are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,226,389 which discloses a pair of diverging stand legs which swing to a deployed position while U.S. Pat. No. 4,676,464 relies on a strap actuated, bridle arrangement to lift the legs into place against the bag upon termination of ground contact. A modified form of the last described stand utilizes bungee cords which serve to extend the legs for ground contact. Such an arrangement is also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,778,136.